Posted on 09/24/2006 2:37:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
A just-unearthed cave formed more than 1 million years ago could yield new insight into the geological history of the American West, according to scientists, who called the discovery a major find.
Four amateur cave explorers uncovered the vast caverns, stretching more than 1,000 feet into a remote mountainside, in August.
Visitors to the cave, dubbed Ursa Minor, described seeing millions of crystals that shimmered like diamonds lodged in its walls. Translucent mineral curtains hung from the ceiling, and a lake possibly 20 feet deep filled one of the cave's five known rooms.
Passages leading into darkness suggested there was still much more to see.
Geologists and cave explorers said although caves are discovered often, it is rare to find one so grand.
"There are things in this cave that could really open windows into our knowledge of geologic history and the formation of caves throughout the West," said Joel Despain, the park's cave manager. "We're just beginning to understand the scientific ramifications of this."
Park officials will not pinpoint the cave's location, saying only that it is in the Kaweah River watershed and will probably never be open to the public.
Explorer Scott McBride with the nonprofit Cave Research Foundation discovered the entrance to Ursa Minor, no bigger than a softball, on Aug. 19.
A lot of that in commercial caves comes from the artificial lighting. Chlorophyl bearing organisms do not ordinarily do well in the dark. Some commercial caves have taken to rotating the lighting times to coincide with the tour groups' progress to slow that down.
If she be not so to me, what care I how fair she be, eh?
1,000,000
I am not calling for handicapped ramps into every cave. Those who want to visit should be able to gain entry in a controlled manner. It should not be closed to the public and open only to a chosen few.
In that same drainage, the Kaweah, there are a number of caves which have had some truly spectacular formations. One of them, Crystal Cave, is open to the public on a pay-as-you enter system run by the Park Service and has been reasonably well preserved. The others are well off the road and are open to qualified people.
By "qualified" I mean those with the technical expertise and experience to get in the cave and then get out safely. In my younger days I was instrumental in building concrete and steel gates in the entrances of a couple of them. The purpose wasn't necessarily to keep the ordinary citizen from seeing them but to keep that ordinary citizen from killing himself.
A case in point: Church Cave, on the Kings River, has several entrances and is a bit hard to get too so it's ungated. One entrance, the "Cliff Entrance," gets the caver into the guts of the cave quickly via a 140 foot drop. Back in the late 60s or early 70s a group was planning a photographic expedition in the cave and chose to lower the heavy equipment down that drop. To make a long story short, the man at the top lost his footing and fell to the rocks below. Two years later, when leading a group of rangers and sheriffs deputies into the cave to show them the problems involved in cave rescue, the area where his body fell was alive with mold.
Back on the Kaweah river, one of the prettier caves is known as "Lost Soldier Cave." We gated it but the Park Service still permitted tours to "qualified" groups. One such group, Boy Scouts, I believe, shattered formations that had taken eons to form. With that experience, topped by the muddied white flowstone I mentioned in my earlier post, why should I be the source of information which might - no, which WILL cause the destruction of such beauty?
Call me an elitist if you wish. I've been called much worse in the course of my seventy-two years. I still will not reveal the locations of some of the things I've seen.
You definitely sound like an old time caver, probably doing some arm chair caving right now. Glad to hear that you are still out there. And I agree with your postings too.
They better watch out for slestacks!!
"Say oldfellow, who is this "they" that say? Certainly not anyone who thinks."
I did a little research to answer your question. Actually, I did very little research since I just typed the words into Google and let them do the work for me.
The "They" in question amounts to a pretty long list: Aldo Leopold and John Muir more recently but by allowing minor variations in sentence structure we can include William Shakespeare too. While some might take issue with the quality and subject content of their thoughts I doubt many will claim they did not "think."
A caver about to become a cadaver?
BTTT
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